Constant interruptions

[Rexie]

I've been working on a surgical floor and I am about ready to lose it over the constant interruptions, especially when I'm passing meds. We have an intercom system that the secretary uses to call into the room to tell us that we have a call. She says that all she is allowed to do is answer the phone and contact the nurse. She either is not allowed to ask who is calling or doesn't have the time - I'm still not clear on that. So I can either drop what I'm doing and take the call - sometimes it's a call I've been waiting on - or I can take a chance and leave the caller hanging until I finish what I'm doing, though they'll probably hang up. I was called away from one patient to answer the phone three times in about 10 minutes while trying to give his meds. It's just too many distractions and a med error waiting to happen.

I'm not going to change the culture of the floor and so I need to find a way to manage this better. Or to find a new job.

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

On 5/5/2019 at 11:33 AM, Daisy4RN said:

Have you verified this with the Nurse Manager, could be the secretary is just trying to make it easier for him/her.

We had this nonesense for awhile,until I demanded to see the clerks job description of her duties, lo and behold.....playing clueless was her game...

[dhbrn]

This is one of the myriad reasons I got out of bedside, probably one of the most unsafe reasons for risk of errors.

It is especially disabling if you’re an introvert whose longer neural pathways require more time to take in and process each new interruption.

To maintain a high standard of care for pts and keep my own sanity intact, I think the only way I could ever go back to bedside would be with a rolling soundproof bubble, big enough for me and one patient.

Someone let me know when this gets implemented, I really miss all those differentials ?